The day after the NY Times article came out in 2007, the Seattle PI phoned. Brad Wong wanted to pick up on the Time's buzz and write a local article too. I told him he had perfect timing! World Tai Chi Day was in two weeks and in just a few days I would be hosting a big international workshop with a famous teacher from China. Brad said he’d like to arrange a photoshoot with this teacher and our school for the article. It was indeed perfect timing! Except for the fact I couldn’t bend my knees.
I was trying to get off the prednisone because it was making me crazy. However, with each dosage decrease my symptoms increased. I said to my doctor, “I’m hosting a famous Grandmaster from China, the Seattle PI is coming out for a photo shoot, what can I do?” He simply said, “increase your prednisone, a lot. You’ll be fine for the short term.”
A couple days later, Chen Xiao Xing arrived in Seattle. It would be years before I would realize the impact this moment was to have on my life and the life of my students. It would be many seminars hence before I fully came to understand his influence on the overall quality of my Taijiquan and my capacity to teach it. All I knew right then is this is the man who scared me at the disciple ceremony, and I would not be able to participate in the workshop I was hosting, much less prove my worth to learn from him. I increased the dose as a last-ditch effort.
Everything went wrong. It was not just CXX’s first trip to Seattle, it was only his 2nd trip outside of China. For those of you who know him, know he really doesn’t like to travel and back then his distaste for it was much more evident. And who could blame him! He didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak Chinese. It was a long trip from the Village. He had been to San Diego already but was still suffering jetlag. Mark Wasson, a long time student of his flew in from California to help me. We had them set up in a local hotel. Mark was going to take care of him, his food and such.
When I checked on them after they settled in the hotel, it was very evident there was a gas leak. We moved them immediately into another hotel. The next day, Mark left unexpectedly. We could not leave CXX alone in a hotel, so Kevin & I moved him into our home. The only place we had for him to sleep was our basement room that was being used as a storage room. It was a mess. There was a bed, but it was piled high with seasonal clothes. The carpet was stained and smelled like mildew from a water leak. The only bathroom was simply a toilet and a sink. I had no idea what to cook for him. It was a disaster.
Before the seminar began the P/I came for the Photo Shoot. The prednisone had kicked in and I did fairly well for it. As the weekend progressed, however I became exhausted and weak. I ended up sitting in a chair for much of that first workshop, with blown up knees. Here I was with one of the greatest martial artists and teachers in the world in my home and my school, and as my mother would say, it was going from bad to worse to terrible.
Yet I will never forget how kind Chen Xiao Xing was to me. He taught me from that chair and gave my students a fantastic first experience of what real Village Training was like. Somehow despite the obstacles of this weekend, we found our affinity. Over the next few years we would develop our groove and become what we together became.
The Seattle P/I Article
My unsung hero of this week was Shiuwen Tai. Shiuwen and I had known each other since she moved to Seattle a few years before. I loved her tea and she had taken a little Tai Chi from me. When I told her what was happening, Shiuwen dropped everything she was doing and translated every day for us. She helped CXX & I to cross the language bridge and because of Shiuwen, CXX and begin to get to know each other. She even cooked for him. And by the way, she was 2 months pregnant! Shiuwen remained our translator over the next decade of workshops in Seattle. Thanks to her, CXX and I have a rich old school-teacher student relationship and we have an enormously affectionate and playful one as well. Shiuwen studies Taijiquan diligently. She and I remain the dearest of friends and colleagues.
To this day my health issues during this time remain a mystery. Western medicine leaned on the idea it was some weird menopausal reaction, Eastern say is might have been stored pathogens gone awry from an episode of strep I contracted a couple weeks before my first knee swelling. Either way it had a profound impact on my health. I remained exhausted for much of the year and lost a great deal of muscular strength affecting my muscle tendon tenacity and structural balance.
I taught from a chair for much of the next several months and gently practiced forms as best I could. I had to be very careful to not damage my joints, especially my knees as they continued to be assaulted, although less severely and less frequently. It was to take two years before I could fully bend my knees again and another five to get my immune system straightened out and my overall body as strong as I wanted it to be. I kept at my practices, acupuncture and personal training with the amazing Joe Deshaw. I will always be grateful to the students who stayed with me during this time and especially to those who joined, seeing something more than an infirmed teacher coaching from a chair.
CXX & I at the cheezy photo set at the Space Needle. You can see how puffy I was from the prednisone.